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More ‘hate’ on speakers’ list for Islamic conference

ReligionNewsBlog.com • Thursday June 24, 2010

A massive upcoming Islamic conference in Toronto, which was to be headlined by an Indian televangelist until he was recently banned from Canada for his inflammatory statements, features a list of speakers whose past comments against Jews, homosexuals and the West have raised red flags in other countries.
The Journey of Faith Conference — billed as North America’s largest Islamic conference — features such personalities as Abdur Raheem Green, who has advocated “fighting jihad” and who was reportedly invited by the Christmas Day airline bomber to address British students in 2007, and Sheikh Hussein Yee, who once said Jews are the “extremists of the world” and will “go to Hell.”
The chairman of the conference — which is slated to attract upwards of 10,000 people to the city next month — is Imam Saed Rageah, whose Toronto mosque, the Abu Huraira Centre, made headlines last fall after several young worshippers vanished and were feared to have joined a Somali militant group.
The National Post reported yesterday that the conference’s main speaker, Peace TV founder Dr. Zakir Naik, will not be allowed to enter Canada because of concerns surrounding past statements such as “every Muslim should be a terrorist,” Jews are “our staunchest enemy,” and “If [Osama bin Laden] is fighting the enemies of Islam, I am for him.”
But while Dr. Naik recently grabbed headlines around the world — first for his exclusion from the U.K. ahead of a speaking tour later this month — the conference itself has managed to keep a relatively low profile, despite its controversial list of a dozen speakers and chairman.
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